Precision Dairy Management: Alternative Model for Labour-Efficient Production

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1 AGRICULTURAL RURAL DEVELOPMENT Journal Homepage: TECHNICAL ARTICLE Precision Dairy Management: Alternative Model for Labour-Efficient Production Rajni Chaudhary* 1, Lalrengpuii Sailo 1, Uiase Bin Farooq 2 and Shafiya Imtiaz Rafiqi 1 1 PhD Scholar, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly (UP) , India. 2 Assistant Professor, School of Veterinary Medicine, Hawassa University, Ethiopia. *Corresponding Author: Rajni Chaudhary rajnichaudhary79@gmail.com Received: 27/04/2016 Revised: 16/05/2016 Accepted: 17/05/2016 Abstract Precision dairy farming is a new golden era of dairy industry. Precision dairy farming technologies provide tremendous opportunities for improvements in individual animal management on dairy farms. Many of the technologies applied to the dairy industry are variations of base technologies used in larger industries such as the automobile or personal electronic industries. Undoubtedly, these technologies will continue to change the way that dairy animals are managed. This farming system, in many developing countries, including India, is in its infancy but there are numerous opportunities for adoption. Society may perceive this as beneficial to maintaining a strong rural economy. Precision technologies also improve food safety through better animal identification and traceability and animal wellbeing through improved health monitoring and individual care. Keywords: Dairy farming, Dairy technology, Health monitoring. 1. Introduction Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for longterm production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming from being traditional family run businesses today, has grown hugely to an organized dairy industry with technological specializations in every part of the process. We have seen tremendous growth in dairy farming equipment that helps modern dairy farms to manage thousands of dairy cows and buffaloes. This huge boost in the industry has created a lot of farming jobs for the people. But many of the dairy farms still manage and run organic dairy farms mostly in villages and supply the milk to get processed by large companies and finally sell to the retail outlets. The best approach is to create and run a sustainable dairy farm that gives maximum profits to the firm and also takes care of the effects of dairy farms on environments and animals for a longer period. One of the most important objectives of farmers is to maximize economic return from production units, costs have to be minimized and benefits maximized. This has intensified the drive for efficiency. At the same time dairy farmers have to take into account consumers demands such as food safety and quality, zoonotic disease transmission, animal welfare, reduction of the use of medical treatments and an acceptable environmental impact of livestock production (Berckmans, 2003; 2004). Furthermore, the decision making landscape for a dairy manager has changed dramatically with increased emphasis on consumer protection, continuous quality assurance, natural foods, pathogen-free food, zoonotic disease transmission, reduction of the use of medical treatments, and increased concern for the care of animals (Singh et al., 2014). These changing demographics reflect a continuing change in the way in which dairy operations are managed. In large part, many of these changes can be attributed to tremendous technological progress in all facets of dairy farming, including genetics, nutrition, reproduction, disease control and management. Philpot (2003) captured this change effectively in describing modern dairy farms as technological marvels. Conceivably, the next technological marvel in the dairy industry may be in Precision Dairy Farming. Precision dairy farming is the use of automated mechanized technologies towards refinement of dairy management processes, procedures or information collection. In other words, Precision Dairy Farming uses technologies to measure technologies for assessment of fine-scale animal and physical resource variability aimed at improved management strategies for optimizing economic, social and environmental farm performance. The trend toward group management may be reversed with Precision Dairy

2 Farming as the focus returns to individual cows through the use of technologies (Schulze et al., 2007). Many Precision Dairy Farming technologies, including daily milk yield recording, milk component monitoring (e.g. fat, protein and SCC), pedometers, automatic temperature recording devices, milk conductivity indicators, automatic estrus detection monitors and daily body weight measurements, are already being utilized by dairy producers. Fig 1: Different areas to be monitored in a ruminant animal. Fig 2: Precision Dairy Research Project at the University of Kentucky. 2. Objectives The main objectives of Precision Dairy Farming are maximizing individual animal potential, early detection of disease and minimizing the use of medication through preventive health measures (Schulze et al., 2007). Precision Dairy Farming is inherently an interdisciplinary field incorporating concepts of informatics, biostatistics, ethology, economics, animal breeding, animal husbandry, animal nutrition and engineering. 3. Components Components of Precision Dairy Farming include: Computers Global Positioning System (GPS) Geographic Information System (GIS) Remote Sensing (RS) Application control 4. Currently used Technologies in Precision Dairy Farming Many precision dairy farming technologies which are already being utilized by dairy producers are: electronic (radio frequency) identification systems and associated management software, automatic body condition scoring (Roche et al., 2009), automatic recording devices (rumen temperature, pressure, ph) by electronic rumen bolus, robotic milking systems (Artmann et al., 1997) for daily milk yield recording and milk component monitoring (such as fat, protein and SCC), daily body weight gain measurement, robotic calf feeding systems, pedometers for heat detection (Kiddy et al., 1977), for health monitoring i.e. measuring lying time and standing bouts, milk analyzer, parturition sensors, milk conductivity indicators, etc. Other theoretical precision dairy farming technologies have been proposed to measure jaw movements, reticular contractions, heart rate, animal positioning and activity (to compare low activity to high activity where low activity may indicate a sick cow or a cow lying down), vaginal mucus electrical resistance, feeding behavior, odour, glucose, acoustics, progesterone, individual milk components, colour (as an indicator of cleanliness) and respiration rates. Further in the future the remote sensing of cow condition, GPS based cow tracking in fenceless farms may be included in commercially available precision dairying technologies. 5. Potential Benefits of Precision Dairy Farming Benefits thought to come from Precision Dairy Farming technologies include increased efficiency, reduced costs, improved product quality, minimized adverse environmental impacts and improved animal health and well-being. These technologies are likely to have the greatest impact in the areas of health, reproduction and quality control. A Precision Dairy Farming technology allows dairy producers to make more timely and informed decisions, resulting in improved productivity and profitability (Bewely et al., 2008). Real time data can be used to monitor animals 11

and create exception reports to identify meaningful deviations from the normal pattern. Benefits of precision dairy farming can be summarized as below: Improved animal health and well-being.

Animal ID may sometime read errors. Equipment failure may occur because often they are sophisticated to handle, low temporal resolution and require good visibility of the subjects.

Lack of validated research results concerning the effects of application, high capital input and high costs. Applicable to a restricted spatial area. Fig 3: Precision feeding system.

3 and create exception reports to identify meaningful deviations from the normal pattern. Benefits of precision dairy farming can be summarized as below: Improved animal health and well-being. Increased efficiency. Reduced costs. Improved product quality. Minimized adverse environmental impacts. Risk analysis and risk management. More objective (less observer bias and influence). Animal ID may sometime read errors. Equipment failure may occur because often they are sophisticated to handle, low temporal resolution and require good visibility of the subjects. Data transfer error may be due to over-supply of data and the time-consuming handling of software programme. Lack of validated research results concerning the effects of application, high capital input and high costs. Applicable to a restricted spatial area. Fig 3: Precision feeding system. Fig 4: Robotic milking system. 6. Limitations Information obtained from precision dairy farming technologies is only useful if it is interpreted and used effectively in decision making. Slow adoption rate due to uncertain return on investment, high fixed costs of investment and information acquisition and lack of demonstrated effects of these technologies on yields, input use and environmental performance (Khanna et al., 1999). Such technologies are adapted by younger and welleducated farmers which, additionally, operate larger enterprises and gain higher profits, to a larger extent. Fig 5: Robotic calf feeding system. 7. Current Status of Precision Dairy Farming Despite widespread availability, adoption of these technologies in the dairy industry has been relatively slow thus far. In fact, agricultural adoption of on-farm software packages, as a whole, has been much lower than predicted. The majority of information management systems available and utilized by many dairy producers have analytical capabilities that are underutilized. In practicality, their use is often limited to creating production tables, attention lists and working schedules. Perceived economic returns from investing in a new technology are likely the main factor influencing Precision Dairy Farming technology adoption. Additional factors impacting technology adoption include degree of impact on resources used in the production process, level of management needed to implement the technology, risk associated with the technology, institutional constraints, producer goals and motivations and having an interest in a specific technology. The most progressive producers will adopt those new technologies that appear to be profitable. 8. Investment Analysis of Precision Dairy Farming Technologies Today s dairy manager is presented with a constant stream of new technologies to consider 12

4 including new Precision Dairy Farming technologies. Investment analyses of information systems and technologies are common within the general business literature. However, dairy-specific tools examining investment of Precision Dairy Farming technologies are limited though investment analyses of other dairy technologies abound (Meijer et al., 2010). In an analysis of an investment opportunity at the dairy level, cash flows are generally uncertain because of biological variability or incomplete knowledge of the system. The impact that a Precision Dairy Farming technology has on productive and economic performance is difficult to examine because of the changing nature of the decision environment where investments are often one-time investments but returns accrue over a longer period of time. Further, benefit streams resulting from investment in a Precision Dairy Farming technology are highly dependent upon the user s ability to understand and utilize the information provided by the new technology. An economic analysis of the value of Precision Dairy Farming technologies requires consideration of the effect of adoption on both quality and timeliness of decisions. Improvements associated with adoption of new Precision Dairy Farming technologies may increase profits directly through improved utilization of data provided by the technology or indirectly through recommendations of consultants utilizing the new information. Ultimately, decision making is and should be dependent upon both rational analysis and instinct. 9. Conclusions and Outlook New Precision Dairy Farming technologies are introduced to the market each year. As new technologies are developed in other industries, engineers and animal scientists find applications within the dairy industry. More importantly, as these technologies are widely adopted in larger industries, such as the automobile or personal computing industries, the costs of the base technologies decrease making them more economically feasible for dairy farms. Because the bulk of research focused on Precision Dairy Farming technologies is conducted in research environments, care must be taken in trying to transfer these results directly to commercial settings. References Artmann R (1997). Sensor systems for milking robots. Computer and Electronics in Agriculture, 17: Berckmans D (2003). Precision livestock farming research. Keynote lecture at the first European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, Berlin, Germany, June, Berckmans D (2004). Automatic on-line Monitoring of Animals by Precision Livestock Farming. In the Field experiments or simulations may need to be conducted to alleviate this issue. Because of the gap between the impacts of Precision Dairy Farming technologies in research versus commercial settings, additional effort needs to be directed toward implementation of management practices needed to fully utilize information provided by these technologies. To gain a better understanding of technology adoption shortcomings, additional research needs to be undertaken to examine the adoption process for not only successful adoption of technology but also technology adoption failures. Before investing in a new technology, a formal investment analysis should be conducted to make sure that the technology is right for your farm s needs. Examining decisions with a simulation model accounts for more of the risk and uncertainty characteristic of the dairy system. Given this risk and uncertainty, a stochastic simulation investment analysis will represent that there is uncertainty in the profitability of some projects. Ultimately, the dairy manager s level of risk aversion will determine whether or not he or she invests in a technology using the results from this type of analysis. Perhaps the most interesting conclusion is that the factors that had the most influence on the profitability investment in an automated BCS system are those related to what happens with the technology after it has been purchased as indicated by the increase in variable costs needed for management changes and the management capacity of the farm. Decision support tools, such as this one, that are designed to investigate dairy herd decisions at a systems level may help dairy producers make better decisions. Precision dairy farming technologies provide tremendous opportunities for improvements in individual animal management on dairy farms. In the future, Precision Dairy Farming technologies may change the way dairy herds are managed. Progressive Indian farmers, with guidance from the public and private sectors, will adopt it in a limited scale as the technology shows potential for raising yields and economic returns. Effective coordination among the public, private sectors and growers is, therefore, essential for implementing new strategies to achieve fruitful success. Proceedings of conference of International Society for Animal Hygiene - Saint-Malo, Bewley JM, Peacock AM, Lewis O, Boyce RE, Roberts DJ, Coffey MP, Kenyon SJ and Schutz MM (2008). Potential for estimation of body condition scores in dairy cattle from digital images. Journal of Dairy Science, 91: Khanna M, Epouhe OF and Hornbaker RH (1999). Site specific crop management: Adoption patterns and 13

5 incentives. Review of Agricultural Economics, 21: Kiddy CA (1977). Variation in physical activity as an indication of estrus in dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science, 60: Meijer R and Peeters K (2010). The Use of Precision Dairy Farming in Feeding and Nutrition. The First North American Conference on Precision Dairy Management. Philpot WN (2003). Role of technology in an evolving dairy industry. In 2003 Southeast Dairy Herd Management Conference, Macon, Georgia (6-14). Roche JR, Friggens NC, Kay JK, Fisher MW, Stafford KJ, and Berry DP (2009). Invited review: Body condition score and its association with dairy cow productivity, health and welfare. Journal of Dairy Science, 92: Schulze C, Spilke J and Lehnerv W (2007). Data modeling for Precision Dairy Farming within the competitive field of operational and analytical tasks. Computer and Electronics in Agriculture, 59(1): Singh SP, Ghosh S, Lakhani GP, Jain A and Roy B (2014) Precision Dairy Farming: The Next Dairy Marvel. Journal of Veterinary Science and Technology, 5:

Adoption of Precision Dairy Technology in Pennsylvania. Berks County 1238 County Welfare Road Leesport, PA 19533

Adoption of Precision Dairy Technology in Pennsylvania Berks County 1238 County Welfare Road Leesport, PA 19533 Introduction to Precision Dairy Technology Robotic Milking Systems Activity and Health Monitoring